Induction to the One Club
Hall Of Fame

On October 17, 2007, a black tie gala at The Metropolitan Club in New York City hosted advertising’s most prominent figures for the induction of three of advertising‘s greatest legends–Phil Dusenberry, Tim Delaney and the late Paul Rand (1914–1996), into The One Club’s Creative Hall of Fame.

As part of the induction, Imaginary Forces created a four-minute film capturing some of Rand’s best work in design and design thinking by animating a mix of logos and layouts set to music, along with the words from a 1997 interview titled “Conversations with Paul Rand”.

The on-camera interview, in which he talked about the essence of graphic design and its similarities to fine art, were visually manipulated and re-mixed by I.F.’s creative team on the project, and directed Mark Gardner.

The brief the One Club gave us was wide open,” Gardner explains. “They wanted a film that would sum up his philosophy, personality and work.

“We needed to get across a sense of who he was, not just the work he’d produced,” Gardner explains about the creative approach I.F. took. “That’s why we decided to use his image and voiceover rather than tape interviews with other people talking about him. Also, as he never produced any film or animation on his own, we needed to bring the work to life for the context in which it would be shown. We knew the style of work lent itself to very simple and humorous animation and transitions, and this fitted perfectly with the rhythmic jazz soundtrack we chose.”

The short was produced for I.F. by Cara McKenney and executive produced by Maribeth Phillips. Additional I.F. credits go to designer/animators Joey Salim, Jeremy Cox and Liz Centolella and animators Andrew Chung, Sean Eno and Chase Massingill. Edited by I.F.’s Corey Weisz, and sound design by Derek Lee.

Watch a high-quality version of the video here:

Paul’s widow Marion was also in attendance, as well as other close friends such as Mario Rampone, George Lois and Bob Burns.